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Aydın Büyüktaş’s mind-bending drone photography

Dan Webb
Istanbul-based Aydın Büyüktaş is a self-taught photographer who turns local landscapes into warped, multidimensional paradoxes with the aid of drones.

It would appear that your work seeks to reconnect people with their surroundings. Are we too out of touch?
We live in places that most of the time don’t draw our attention, places that transform our memories, places that the artist gives another dimension; where the perceptions that generally cross our minds will be demolished and new ones will arise. These works aim to leave the viewer alone with a surprising, ironic visuality as well as a multidimensional romantic point of view.

You’ve stated that your ‘Flatland’ series was inspired by the book by Edwin Abbott. What aspect of that particular book interested you the most?
I was very impressed by the book written in 1884 exemplifying the difficulties in comprehending the way of interconnecting the dimensions and the inter-dimensional transition. The fact that the book tried to tell the inter-dimensional transition and the third dimension in second dimension corresponded to my inquiry about the third dimension.

Social class and hierarchy is a major theme in Abbott’s Flatland. Is it your intent to make any political statements through your work?
No I don’t have political statements in my works. That side of the book also impressed me. But I discovered his book while I was reading “Hyperspace” the book by (Japanese-American futurist and theoretical physicist) Michio Kaku. He was using examples from “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” by Edwin Abbott to describe easy ways of dimensional transitions.

Which technologies do you use in the creation of an image?
I used a quad copter to take photographs.

We live in places that most of the time don’t draw our attention, places that transform our memories, places that the artist gives another dimension; where the perceptions that generally cross our minds will be demolished and new ones will arise.

Can you remember the moment you decided to pursue photography as a discipline?
I always needed photography while I was working as a visual effect artist and 3D artist. I don’t remember when it was my turn to pursue it, but I am using photography as a tool to create my dreams – maybe next time it will be video or 3D.

Would you consider traveling abroad to take photos?
Yes, I want to take photography in other countries like USA, China, France, Germany. But many countries have restrictive rules about drones so I have to research it.

If you could collaborate with any artist, in any medium, past or present, who would it be and what would you ideally create?
Michel Gondry, Gregory Crewdson and Christopher Nolan. I want to see them in a collaboration without me, to create my childhood dreams.